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Do you think that the canonical cortical circuit is complicated? It's so much worse than that! Overlayed on top of the wired connectome, there are *18* different signal-carrying peptides in cortex! Their range is ~similar to the size of a cortical column elifesciences.org/articles/47889 1/

Patrick Mineault

@patrickmineault.bsky.social

What do they do, computationally? Who knows?! Personally, I don't buy that "preventing epileptiform activity" or "maintain a state of homeostasis" requires *18* different signals. Here's one proposal, that they can be used to do credit assignment. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC... 2/

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.govCell-type–specific neuromodulation guides synaptic credit assignment in a spiking neural networkSynaptic connectivity provides the foundation for our present understanding of neuronal network function, but static connectivity cannot explain learning and memory. We propose a computational role fo...

4/5/26, 9:59 pm0 reposts8 likes

Patrick Mineault

@patrickmineault.bsky.social

4 May

They move the excitability of cells up and down, both pre-and-post-synaptically. Is cortex like the stomach ganglia made famous by Eve Marder's work, infinitely reconfigurable through modulators and peptides? Scary stuff! 3/3 www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...